Shanin Specter L'84

Adjunct Professor of Law

Education

JD - Penn Law - '84

LLM - Cambridge - '84

BA - Haverford - '80

Shanin Specter is a partner in the Philadelphia law firm of Kline and Specter, P.C., practicing catastrophic injury litigation. He received a B.A. with honors in Political Science from Haverford College in 1980, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984, and an LL.M. with First Honors from Cambridge University in 1984.

Mr. Specter has had an exceptionally successful career as a trial lawyer, winning more than 100 verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million, including 13 verdicts in eight or nine figures. In December 2012, he won a $109 million verdict for the family of a woman killed by a fallen power line, the largest verdict in a personal injury case in Pennsylvania history. In an earlier case, tried in Reno, Nev., he won a $153 million verdict against the Ford Motor Co. in a case involving defective parking brakes. Most recently, in late 2013, he obtained a $30 million settlement in a medical malpractice case involving a child severely injured by an anesthesia error.

Mr. Specter has been named one of the nation’s best lawyers and among the Top 10 in Pennsylvania by various independent attorney rating services. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, described by The Washington Post as “a select group of 100 of the nation’s most celebrated trial lawyers.” Mr. Specter is the recipient of both the Michael A. Musmanno Award, the highest honor conferred by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Milton D. Rosenberg Award given annually by the Pennsylvania Association for Justice.

He was a member of a Hearing Committee of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from 1989 - 1994 and served as a Chairman from 1994 - 1995. Mr. Specter was a member of the Civil Procedural Rules Committee of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania from1995 to 2001. He was the Governor's Appointee to the Pennsylvania Medical Professional Liability Insurance Catastrophe Loss Fund Advisory Board from 1997 - 2002. He has been named one of the top ten litigators in Pennsylvania by the National Law Journal and one of the top ten attorneys in Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers 2007.